Book review

How does a pluralistic country like the United States find a medium of civic engagement that advances society through its most high profile arenas -religion and politics-- in a way that inherently gives dignity and worth to a variety competing, even opposing, worldviews? Each of the most well known of these cultural disconnects, including LGBTs and conservatives, ultimately stems from that lingering question.

On any given topic, the opposing worldviews argue for their baseline moral, social, and ethical frameworks, and coinciding policies, to be the dominant lens which culture views, governs, and engages itself and others. The battle for ethics, policy, and who gets to dictate cultural normalcy produces the fertile ground for the culture wars that this recent generation has only ever known. Yet this polarizing disintegration of peaceful and productive engagement no longer has to be viewed as "normal."

Our Last Option sets a path forward for a new generation of people tired of the broken system handed to them; providing answers to the problems that are tearing Western societies apart. This short ebook will explore a new model of civic engagement, Composite Engagement Model (CEM), articulating the merits of its four key principles as this generation's most effective model of building bridges between opposing worldviews. CEM has been tested since the year 2010 through Andrew's work with the United Nations, as well as over the past decade through his internationally recognized peace-building organization, The Marin Foundation. Now for the first time CEM will be explored academically.

Our Last Option will hold its readers accountable to live within a different standard of cultural, political, and religious engagement--one that begins to shift the dynamics of the tired systems that caused these culture wars in the first place.